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INDIANA  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  PUBLICATIONS 
VOL.  7  NO.  8 


THE  SCIENCE 
OF  COLUMBUS 


BY 

ELIZABETH  MILLER 

(Mrs.  Oren  S.  Hack) 
Author  of  "The   Yoke;'   "Daybreak;'  etc. 


GREENFIELD,    IND. 

WILLIAM  MITCHELL  PRINTING  CO. 

1921 


THE  SCIENCE  OF  COLUMBUS. 

In  order  to  preserve  peace  between  nations,  Pope  Alexan- 
der VI  in  1494  apportioned  the  State  of  Indiana  and  other 
territory  to  Spain.  At  that  hour  the  wonderful  North  Amer- 
ican contintent  lay  behind  the  veil  as  yet  unlifted.  As  far  as 
Portugal  or  Castile  and  Leon  were  informed  the  welter  of  the 
grey  Atlantic  extended  unbroken  north  of  Cuba  to  the  Pole. 
Inasmuch,  however,  as  an  Italian  adventurer  had  brought 
forth  a  marvel  from  the  west,  the  Kings  of  these  European 
countries  were  prepared  for  any  surprise  from  the  unknown 
and  they  went  to  the  arbiter  of  national  disagreements  to  as- 
sign to  each  what  should  be  his  when  it  was  discovered. 

The  Line  of  Demarcation  was  drawn  from  Pole  to  Pole  at 
370  leagues  to  be  measured  in  degrees  or  by  another  manner 
from  the  islands  of  Cape  Verde  to  the  west.  Anything  to  be 
discovered  or  already  discovered  that  lay  east,  north  or  south 
of  this  line  was  to  belong  to  the  King  of  Portugal  and  what- 
ever was  west,  north  or  south  of  this  line  was  to  belong  to 
Spain.  Should  one  or  the  other  nation  discover  lands  within 
the  preserves  of  the  other  he  was  peaceably  to  relinquish  such 
lands  to  that  party  in  whose  domain  such  discoveries  were 
made.  It  was  a  beautiful  arrangement  and  was  cheerfully 
ignored  as  many  beautiful  national  arrangements  have  always 
been. 

The  blue-eyed  Briton  and  the  black-eyed  Frenchman 
swarmed  over  the  soil  of  North  America  planting  flags  and 
firing  commemorative  lombard  shots  which  signalized  pos- 
session as  if  the  venerable  Spaniard  in  the  Vatican  had  not 

450 


The  Science  of  Columbus  451 

spoken.  For  that  reason  Indiana  only  belonged  to  Spain  in 
an  unreal  way.  In  that  much  the  title  of  Indiana  to  the  people 
of  the  commonwealth  is  clouded.  Spain,  however,  had  failed 
to  deliver  to  Christopher  Columbus  the  value  of  his  portion  of 
the  territory  he  had  discovered,  according  to  contract,  and  her 
title,  also,  is  not  immaculate.  When  the  matter  is  traced  to  the 
source  the  original  title  lies  between  that  Italian  sailor  and  a 
copper-skinned  race  whose  seed  was  planted  here  by  the  winds 
that  scattered  mankind  over  the  earth  when  Time  was  young. 

When  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  entered  into  a  contract  with 
Christopher  Columbus  by  which  he  was  to  set  forth  on  a  voy- 
age of  discovery,  they  caused  John  de  Coloma  to  write  in  La 
Capitulacion  that; 

"Per  quanto  vos,  Christoval  Colon  vades  por  nuestro  man- 
dado  a  descobrir  e  ganar  con  cjertas  fustas  neustras  a  con 
neustras  gentes  ciertas  ylas  e  terra  firme  enla  mar  oceana. — " 

(Forasmuch  as  you,  Christopher  Columbus  are  going  by 
our  command  with  some  of  our  ships  and  with  our  subjects  to 
discover  and  acquire  certain  islands  and  mainlands  in  the 
ocean — ,") 

they  expected  to  make  certain  concessions  to  the  Italian  for 
his  services. 

In  these  terms  they  set  down  plainly  what  they  expected 
Columbus  to  discover  upon  representations  made  to  them  by 
the  Italian  sailor.  The  preamble  of  the  Capitulation  consisted 
of  an  extensive  religious  discussion  with  which  most  of  the 
state  documents  of  this  royal  pair  opened,  but  the  several 
clauses  of  the  contract  dealing  directly  with  the  expedition 
consisted  of  a  straightforward  bargain  between  an  adventurer 
and  a  pair  of  acquisitive  princes  who  had  territory  and  in- 
creased revenues  in  mind. 


452  The  Science  of  Columbus 

Columbus  had  put  forward  arguments  and  inducements  as 
many  and  diverse  as  the  number  and  kind  of  people  before 
whom  he  had  laid  his  scheme.  He  had  held  out  the  rescue  of 
the  Holy  Sepulchre  and  the  financing  of  a  great  Crusade*  to 
the  religious ;  he  had  told  of  spices  and  gems  and  merchandise 
to  the  commercial  minded;  of  the  Grand  Khan  and  Prester 
John  to  the  conquistador ;  of  a  round  world  to  the  scientist. 
But  in  signing  a  contract  he  would  bind  himself  to  the  most 
feasible  task.  He  did  not  engage  to  prove  the  world  was 
round,  to  find  gold,  gems  or  spices  or  to  deliver  the  gorgeous 
Asiatic  cities  of  Zaiton  and  Quinsay  to  his  royal  patrons.  He 
bound  himself  by  a  legal  instrument  to  deliver  a  landfall  and 
nothing  else.  It  indicates  that  he  was  sure  of  islands  and 
mainlands  in  the  ocean-sea.  In  the  light  of  his  positive  as- 
surance, it  is  interesting  to  examine  Columbus  upon  the.  scope 
of  his  knowledge  and  the  reach  of  his  surmises. 

Christopher  Columbus  was  born  in  Genoa  in  1446  (circa). 
His  parents  were  Domineco  and  Susanna,  weavers,  who 
owned  two  houses  in  Genoa  at  one  time  and  at  another  had  a 
mortgage  foreclosed  upon  them.  He  had  brothers  and  at  least 
one  sister.  Weavers  of  doubtful  fortune  with  a  family  in 
1446  could  hardly  educate  a  child.  Ferdinand  Columbus,  nat- 
ural and  most  admirable  son  of  the  Discoverer,  declares  that 
his  father  attended  the  University  of  Pavia. 

"I  say,  therefore,"  he  writes  in  his  "Historie"  "that  in  his 
youth  he  learned  letters  and  studied  in  Pavia  enough  to  under- 
stand  Cosmography,  the  teachings  of   which   science   greatly 


*Las   Casas ;   Historia.     From  the  Journal  of  the   Admiral,  First 
Voyage,  under  the  date  of  December  26,  1492. 


The  Science  of  Columbus  453 

delighted  him ;  and  on  account  of  which  he  studied  Astrol- 
ogy* and  Geometry  since  these  sciences  are  so  related  to  each 
other  that  one  cannot  be  understood  without  the  other  and  also 
because  Ptolemy  in  the  beginning  of  his  Cosmography  says 
that  no  one  can  be  a  good  cosmographer  if  he  is  not  also  a 
good  painter." 

Columbus  makes  a  claim  to  education  in  a  letter  written  to 
the  monarchs  of  Spain, 

"In  quefto  tempo  io  ho  veduto,  &  meffo  ftudio  in  vedere 
tutti  i  libri  di  Cofmografia,  d'Hiftoria,  &  di  Filofoltia,  & 
d'altre  fcientie." 

("In  this  time  I  saw  and  studied  diligently  all  the  books  of 
cosmography,  of  history  and  of  Philosophy  and  of  other 
sciences.") 

*Frequently  in  the  Admiral's  writings  he  confirms  this  claim  to  a 
knowledge  of  Astrology  as  astronomy  was  called  in  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury. For  example  on  Sunday,  January  13,  1493,  he  records  the  fol- 
lowing, transcribed  in  the  Historia  of  Las  Casas : 

"He  (the  Admiral)  would  have  liked  to  have  gone  out  of  the  har- 
bor, adverse  winds  preventing,  in  order  to  go  to  a  better  harbor  be- 
cause that  harbor  was  somewhat  exposed  and  because  he  wished  to 
observe  the  conjunction  of  the  moon  with  the  sun,  which  he  expected 
to  take  place  the  17th  of  this  month  and  the  opposition  of  the  moon 
with  Jupiter  and  conjunction  with  Mercury  and  the  sun  in  opposition 
with  Jupiter  which  is  the  cause  of  great  winds." 

It  is  worth  noting  that  the  Journal  beginning  with  the  17th  de- 
tails a  comparative  calm  for  six  days. 

On  Monday,  January  21,  he  writes  : 

"He  found  the  winds  cooler  and  he  expected,  he  says,  to  find  them 
more  so  each  day  the  more  he  went  to  the  north  and  also  because  the 
nights  were  longer  on  account  of  the  narrowing  of  the  sphere."  He 
is  explaining  here  the  diminishing  length  of  the  degrees,  from  the 
equator  to  the  pole. 

These  are  not  the  words  of  a  man  merely  guessing  that  the  world 
is  round. 

On  his  second  voyage  he  attributes  the  daily  shower  on  Jamaica  in 
July  to  the  dense  groves  fringing  the  islands,  a  scientific  explanation 
three  or  four  centuries  in  advance  of  the  times. 


454  The  Science  of  Columbus 

If  Ferdinand  Columbus'  statements  are  to  be  credited,  the 
Discoverer  was  a  student  of  cosmography,  geometry,  astrol- 
ogy, philosophy,  history  and  other  sciences  before  he  was 
fourteen  years  old,  at  which  time  Columbus  declares  he  went 
to  sea.* 

The  knowledge  that  made  him  the  foremost  explorer  of  all 
time  and  one  of  the  world's  greatest  scientists  bears  too  little 
of  the  academic  imprint  and  too  much  of  a  self-acquired  educa- 
tion to  substantiate  his  son's  claim.  He  began  work  as  a 
weaver.  During  his  years  before  the  loom  he  might  have  as- 
sociated with  some  retired  instructor  of  the  University.  His 
biography  is  bright  with  friendships  among  the  educated  men 
of  the  time.  Every  sign  points  to  an  education  from  associa- 
tion rather  than  from  instruction.  When  his  idea  of  a  voyage 
to  the  East  by  the  West  entered  his  mind  cannot  be  determined. 
Perhaps  it  grew  as  he  read  and  his  reading  was  of  the  order 
to  inspire  advanced  thinking  and  high  aims.  Italian  was  his 
native  language  and  he  used  it  extensively  in  his  correspond- 
ence. He  must  have  known  something  of  Latin.  He  could 
not  have  successfully  sailed  the  seas  without  knowing  collo- 
quial Portuguese.  He  knew  Spanish  and  adopted  it  as  his 
most  familiar  tongue.  He  mentions  Ahmed-Ben-Kothair,  the 
Arabic  astronomer,  and  again  Rabbi  Samuel  de  Israel,  Wol- 
fridus  Strabo,  the  German,  and  Gerson  of  the  University  of 
Paris.  It  is  improbable  that  he  was  acquainted  with  their 
writings  in  the  original.  He  had  numerous  friends  among 
monks  and  these  may  have  furnished  a  medium  through  which 
he  met  these  writers. 


*"I  commenced  to  navigate  at  fourteen  years  and  I  have  always 
followed  the  sea."    Ferdinand  Columbus,  "Historic" 


The  Science  of  Columbus  455 

It  is  not  too  much  to  conclude  that  Columbus  was  better 
educated  at  forty  than  he  was  at  twenty-five ;  that  an  absorp- 
tive mind,  association  with  men  of  all  nations  and  all  ranks, 
travel  and  reading  gave  him  learning  more  and  more  each 
year,  sound,  serviceable,  broad,  better  than  a  mediaeval  uni- 
versity could  have  afforded  him  in  a  whole  course,  much  less 
a  few  months  snatched  under  the  age  of  fourteen. 

He  spent  twenty-six  years  on  the  sea  before  he  went  to  the 
court  of  Spain  with  his  project  of  a  westward  route  to  India. 
He  claimed  to  have  visited  Frisland  and  Iceland* ;  he  was 
bound  to  have  known  the  islands  of  the  Mediterranean  and  he 
had  hugged  the  African  coast  as  far  as  San  Jorge  de  Mina. 
The  sea  was  his  highway.  Familiarity  with  the  wandering 
face  of  the  waters  begot  in  him  understanding  and  confidence 
in  it.  He  was  unconsciously  equipping  himself  with  the  trade 
previous  believers  in  a  round  world  lacked.  He  became  a  nav- 
igator. Toscanelli,  Aristotle  or  Thales  might  have  believed 
the  earth  a  globe  and  believed  it  for  reason?  grounded  in  sci- 
ence but  they  could  not  handle  a  tiller  nor  hoist  a  sail. 

Sometime  in  his  young  manhood  while  he  lived  in  Portugal 
he  married  Phillipa  Moniz,  daughter  of  Pietro  Moniz  de  Pe- 
restrello,  governor  of  the  island  of  Porto  Santo.  According 
to  Ferdinand  Columbus  the  mother-in-law  presented  to  the 
Italian  his  father-in-law's  collection  of  charts,  maps  and  logs 
such  as  a  sea-captain,  a  small  explorer  and  the  governor  of  an 


*"I  navigated  in  1477  in  the  month  of  February  100  leagues  beyond 
the  island  of  Thule,"  he  says  in  a  letter  quoted  by  Ferdinand  in  his 
Historic  to  which  Ferdinand  adds:  "and  this  by  moderns  is  called 
Frislanda." 

*"I  was  at  the  fortress  of  St.  George  of  the  Mine  belonging  to  the 
King  of  Portugal,  which  lies  below  the  equinoctial  line."  Ferdinand 
Columbus.     "Historic" 


456  The  Science  of  Columbus 

insular  province  might  gather  together  in  a  life-time.  It  is 
natural  to  suppose  that  Columbus  spent  his  leisure  hours  por- 
ing over  the  many  diverse  drawings  of  the  same  territory  as 
well  as  the  fanciful  sketches  of  land  that  existed  only  in  the 
marvelous  tales  of  travelers. 

Maps  of  the  day  were  famous  for  their  difference  from 
each  other.  There  were  maps  of  a  square  world,  of  an  oval 
world  (Genoese  map  of  1457),  of  an  apple-shaped  world 
(map  of  Beatus,  776),  a  world  like  a  Chines  plate  (map  il- 
lustrating Sallust's  Bellum  jugurtinum,  nth  century),  even 
maps  of  a  globed  world  drawn  with  continents  not  to  be  iden- 
tified with  land-masses  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  (Hereford 
Map  of  1280.  See  Article  Maps,  Ency.  Brit.)  Out  of  this 
miscellany  Columbus  obtained  an  education  in  cosmography ; 
out  of  it  he  evolved  enough  facts  to  shape  a  world  for  himself, 
a  round  world  that  was  as  beneficent  to  mankind  and  as  capa- 
ble of  exploration  as  that  already  known. 

A  globed  world  was  mapped  at  a  time  as  remote  as  150 
B.  C.  upon  a  theory  conceived  seven  centuries  earlier.  Colum- 
bus was  the  heir  to  the  belief  in  a  sphere.  If  he  was  not  a 
pioneer  in  the  theory,  he  crystallized  the  vague  surmises  of 
the  time  and  had  the  courage  and  the  talent  to  establish  his 
belief. 

While  he  was  in  Portugal  poring  over  maps  and  shaping 
his  views  of  a  round  world  and  a  voyage  to  the  East  by  the 
West,  there  is  evidence  that  he  opened  correspondence  with 
the  Florentine  savant,  Paola  Toscanelli.  Several  letters  de- 
clared to  have  been  written  by  the  scientist  of  Florence  are 
preserved  as  proof  that  one  of  the  greatest  thinkers  of  the  time 
inspired  and  urged  Columbus  to  attempt  the  expedition  to 
India  by  the  West. 


The  Science  of  Columbus  457 

Over  the  alleged  correspondence  between  the  two  author- 
ities have  waged  a  fierce  controversy  for  four  centuries.  Co- 
lumbus lived  in  an  age  of  sham.  Forgery  was  cheerfully  in- 
dulged in  whenever  authentic  evidence  was  insufficient  to 
prove  the  point.  The  great  Genoese  might  have  corresponded 
with  Toscanelli  and  he  might  not.  It  is  not  material.  The 
first  paragraph  of  Toscanelli's  first  letter  shows  that  Colum- 
bus had  suggested  his  project  to  the  scientist. 

"I  see  your  great  and  magnificent  desire  to  go  where  the 
spices  grow." 

The  Discoverer  shaped  his  course  as  often  at  variance  with 
Toscanelli's  theories  as  in  line  with  them.  Columbus  was  no 
mere  creature  of  any  man's.  The  fight  he  made  for  himself 
at  the  very  beginning  and  carried  on  to  the  close  of  his  life 
was  based  upon  a  determination  to  be  recognized  as  the  one 
who  had  originated  the  idea,  and  carried  through  the  labor, 
of  proving  the  world  a  globe.* 

In  Portugal  he  received  no  encouragement.  Addressing 
the  Spanish  sovereigns,  he  bitterly  charged  the  Portuguese 
King  with  stupidity. 


*There  is  a  persistent  tradition  told  of  Columbus  while  living'  in 
Portugal,  that  a  pilot  and  three  or  four  seamen,  remnant  of  a  crew  of 
a  merchantman  which  had  been  driven  by  a  storm  into  the  far  West, 
were  received  in  the  house  of  Columbus  on  their  return  and  there  died 
soon  after  of  their  mortal  experiences.  The  story  goes  that  the  pilot 
left  his  log  and  chart  with  Columbus,  who  preempted  the  information 
and  material  furnished  him  by  the  dead  navigator  and  sailed  upon  the 
chart  straightaway  to  the  islands  which  the  pilot  had  found. 

Three  contemporaneous  writers  tell  this  story.  (Two  (Las  Casas 
and  Garcilasso  de  la  Vega,  the  Inca)  accept  it  without  seeing  the 
shadow  cast  upon  the  Admiral.  The  third  (Oviedo)  who  knew  Colum- 
bus and  was  better  able  to  decide,  dismisses  it  bluntly  as  fiction. 

Later  writers  reject  it  with  a  deal  more  feeling  and  resentment 
than  the  value  of  the  story  warrants. 


458  The  Science  of  Columbus 

"He  put  to  shame  his  sight,  hearing  and  all  his  faculties 
for  in  fourteen  years  I  could  not  make  him  understand  what 
I  said." 

At  another  time  he  assures  the  princes  of  Spain  that : 

"I  listened  neither  to  France  nor  England  nor  Portugal, 
the  letters  of  whose  sovereigns  your  Highnesses  saw  by  the 
hand  of  Doctor  Villalo." 

No  such  important  letters  are  preserved  or  even  recorded 
in  the  voluminous  history  of  the  Genoese.  The  main  import 
of  this  reference  is  to  prove  that  the  expedition  to  the  East  by 
the  West  was  an  idea  old  in  the  mind  of  the  Genoese  when  he 
presented  himself  to  them  in  1485. 

Arriving  in  Spain  after  the  Moorish  campaign  was  well 
in  its  third  year,  he  was  put  off  until  a  more  propitious  hour. 
By  that  time  his  conception  of  a  round  world  and  a  way  to 
the  East  by  the  West  had  crowded  all  other  projects  from  his 
mind.  He  was  consumed  with  a  desire  to  prove  his  conten- 
tion and  none  other.  If  he  had  acquired  a  competence,  it  had 
long  since  been  used  in  support  of  a  family  while  he  spent 
fourteen  years  pleading  with  an  uncomprehending  court  in 
Portugal.  He  had  reached  that  exalted  state  of  determination 
where  hunger,  cold  and  exposure  amount  to  nothing  so  long 
as  an  aim  may  be  held  true. 

In  want  dire  enough  to  move  to  compassion,  a  fifteenth 
century  monk  accustomed  to  mediaeval  misery,  he  was  intro- 
duced to  the  queen  by  her  former  confessor  and  consigned  by 
her  to  the  care  of  that  gentle,  kindly,  generous  knight  and 
royal  auditor,  Don  Alonso  de  Quintanilla.  Thereafter  he  was 
entertained   here   and   there   over    Spain*    among    friars   and 

*In  contrast  to  Quintanilla's  generous  treatment  of  the  Genoese 
without  hope  or  expectation  of  pay,  the  letter  of  the  Duque  de  Medina 
Celi  to  the  Grand  Cardinal  of  Spain,  immediately  after  the  return  of 


The  Science  of  Columbus  459 

grandees  but  the  only  times  when  the  Discoverer  felt  want 
were  when  he  was  away  from  the  cordial  roof  of  the  noble 
Quintanilla. 

When  he  was  finally  permitted  to  present  his  scheme  to  the 
monarchs  he  offered  to  the  religious  nature  of  the  Queen  a 
chance  to  spread  the  gospel,  to  the  King  territory,  to  the  con- 
quistadores,  gold.  Upon  these  inducements  he  won  a  tentative 
hearing  before  a  council  at  the  University  of  Salamanca.  The 
importance  of  this  council  has  been  reduced  by  the  research  of 
historians.  It  is  generally  accepted  as  an  unofficial  affair  and 
its  decision  was  merely  a  difference  of  opinion  between  an  ad- 
vanced thinker  and  a  body  of  monks  or  students  or  members 
of  a  faculty,  informally  convened.  That  there  was  a  reference 
of  the  Discoverer's  scheme  to  a  royally  appointed  council 
about  the  year  1491,  is  incontestable.  That  the  state  of  the 
war  with  Granada  precluded  support  to  the  expedition  is 
known  to  have  been  the  verdict  of  that  junta.  Before  the  as- 
sembled mob  of  student  monks  and  faculty  in  Salamanca  and 
before  the  junta  composed  of  the  Grand  Cardinal  of  Spain, 
Fray  Diego  de  Deza,  Alonso  de  Cardenas,  the  Prior  of  Prado, 
Juan  de  Cabrera  and  Alessandro  Geraldini,  the  Italian  Am- 
bassador, Columbus  laid  his  theories.  Ferdinand  Columbus 
declares  that  he  did  not  reveal  his  plans  in  their  entirety  lest 

Columbus  from  his  first  voyage  is  entertaining.  The  following  is  an 
extract : 

"It  may  be  eight  months  since  he  (Columbus)  started  and  now  on 
his  return  he  has  come  to  Lisbon  and  has  found  all  that  he  sought  for 
and  very  fully.  As  soon  as  I  learned  of  this  and  to  make  known  such 
good  news  to  Her  Highness  I  wrote  her  about  it  by  Xuares  and  I  sent 
him  to  beg  that  she  would  show  me  favour  and  allow  me  to  send  some 
of  my  caravels  there  each  year.  I  beg  your  Lordship  to  kindly  aid  me 
in  the  matter  and  I  entreat  it  of  you  on  my  part  since  it  was  through 
me  and  by  my  keeping  him  in  my  house  for  two  years  and  directing 
him  to  the  service  of  her  Highness  that  he  has  accomplished  so  great 
a  thing." 


460  The  Science  of  Columbus 

they  should  be  pre-empted  and  used  without  his  participation. 
His  caution  along  a  similar  line  throughout  his  Journal  very 
nearly  bears  out  this  statement.  However,  his  later  arguments 
before  the  monarchs  in  the  presence  of  many  of  the  same  per- 
sons were  full  and  all-persuasive. 

The  conventional  belief  in  the  shape  of  the  world,  its  boun- 
daries and  its  nature  was  simple  and  Scriptural.  Whatever 
the  scientist  thought,  the  common  people  and  the  clergy  be- 
lieved the  earth  to  be  flat ;  that  it  was  bounded  upon  its  outer 
borders  by  an  ocean  that  faded  away  into  a  mysterious  gloom 
at  the  edge  of  things.  It  was  believed  to  be  separate  and  apart 
from  the  heavenly  bodies.  The  sun  was  believed  to  revolve 
around  it.  Fantastic  theories  were  offered  to  account  for  the 
support  of  the  earth-plane. 

The  one  believed  the  most  rational  provided  a  series  of  im- 
mense columns  among  whose  labyrinthine  gloom  the  sun 
threaded  its  way  as  it  passed  under  the  earth  to  rise  again  in 
the  east  after  setting  in  the  west.  These  columns  rested  on 
anything  or  nothing.  At  that  point  invention  seemed  to  grow 
feeble. 

The  Scriptures  defined  the  geography  of  the  plane.  It  had 
four  corners  and  the  land  comprised  six  parts  of  the  seven  of 
its  surface.*    Upon  these  claims  theologians  issued  pamphlets 


*II  Esdras  4:42. 

1.  Writing  of  the  junta  in  his  Christopher  Columbus,  John  Boyd 
Thatcher  says :  "Alessandro  Geraldini  leaned  over  to  the  Most  Rev. 
erend  Cardinal  of  Spain,  Gonzales  de  Mendoza  and  whispered  that  to 
his  mind  the  geographical  knowledge  of  the  fathers  of  the  Church  had 
been  somewhat  modified  and  enlarged  since  in  these  days  the  Portu- 
guese navigators  had  been  on  a  point  in  another  hemisphere  where  the 
North  Star  no  longer  appeared  in  the  heavens  and  where  the  pilot's  eye 
was  fixed  on  another  Star  and  another  Pole." 

Columbus  was  never  in  great  danger  of  the  Inquisition  through 
high  churchmen,  who  at  thst  date  had  begun  to  look  upon  the  fathers 
of  the  church  as  very  good  saints  but  indifferent  scientists. 


The  Science  of  Columbus  461 

against  heresies.  Commentaries  by  numerous  saints  were 
their  ammunition.1  Science  plays  little  or  no  part  in  their 
arguments.  Reason  they  used  freely  without  knowing  that  the 
simple  derivations  of  reason  do  not  always  come  up  from  the 
deeps  of  facts.  They  said  that  men  could  not  inhabit  the  other 
side  of  the  earth  because  they  could  not  cling  head  downward 
to  the  ground.  Oceans  would  pour  away  on  the  under  side 
of  the  world.  Christ  had  come  to  all  men.  If  men  inhabited 
the  Antipodes  they  would  have  been  slighted.  Sea-faring  men 
added  to  these  scriptural  arguments,  stories  of  demons,  and 
monsters,  and  natural  barriers  in  the  shape  of  whirlpools  and 
magnetic  islands  that  would  draw  out  the  nails  of  ships;  seas 
of  sedge  and  breathless  areas  of  calm.  Some  declared  that  the 
sky  failed  at  certain  points  and  nothing  overarched  the  waters 
at  the  uttermost  limits. 

Against  these  venerable  fallacies  Columbus  had  to  array 
new  and  unique  and  often  perilous  argument.  He  could  show 
the  layman  the  familiar  spectacle  of  a  ship  approaching  a 
quay,  visible  first  at  mast-top,  then  sails,  then  deck  and  finally 
keel  as  proof  of  a  world  that  curved.  He  could  offer  the 
fairly  well  substantiated  tale  of  the  two  drowned  savages  that 
came  ashore  at  Flores ;  he  could  tell  of  the  great  canes  and  of 
the  bar  of  wood,  wrought,  but  not  with  iron  that  were  cast  up 
on  the  Canaries.  To  the  scientist  he  could  offer  deeper  argu- 
ment. He  knew  the  whereabouts  of  the  sun  for  sixteen  hours 
and  because  he  did  not  know  the  rate  of  the  planet's  revolu- 
tion nor  indeed  that  it  revolved  at  all  he  believed  that  the  sun 
spent  the  other  eight  hours  over  an  unknown  extent  of  ocean 
about  one-third  its  actual  size.  Several  times,  he  calculated 
differences  in  time  between  an  eclipse  of  the  moon  occurring 
in  the  western  hemisphere  with  that  of  the  eastern  time  to  bear 


462  The  Science  of  Columbus 

out  his  belief  in  the  size  of  the  earth  at  her  girth.  He  did  not 
know  at  the  time  he  was  appealing  for  funds  to  make  his  ex- 
pedition, that  the  earth  was  larger.  Whether  he  ever  modified 
his  dimensions  of  the  globe  will  be  discussed  later  on. 

"The  world  is  small,"  he  wrote  the  Sovereigns  in  the 
"Lettera  Rarissima"  after  his  return  from  the  fourth  voyage. 
"That  which  is  dry,  that  is  to  say  the  land,  is  six  parts.  The 
seventh  only  is  covered  with  water. ...  I  say  that  the  world 
is  not  as  large  as  commonly  asserted." 

Toscanelli  almost  exactly  estimated  the  size  of  the  globe.* 
This  computation  Columbus  refused  to  accept.  Copernicus 
had  not  yet  pronounced  his  splendid  heresy.  Newton  had  not 
yet  lived.  Ptolemy's  declaration  that  the  earth  could  not  move 
at  great  speed  without  developing  tremendous  gales  from  the 
east  had  long  since  effectively  done  away  with  the  tolerably  cor- 
rect theory  of  the  earth's  revolution  advanced  some  six  cen- 
turies earlier.  With  the  idea  of  a  stationary  world  upon  which  to 
earlier.  With  the  idea  of  a  stationary  world  upon  which  to 
base  his  computations,  the  dimensions  Columbus  obtained  for 
the  globe  were  logical.  That  he  should  fail  entirely  of  a  cor- 
rect estimate  of  the  proportions  of  land  and  water  should  be 
ascribed  to  his  fidelity  to  the  Scriptures. 

At  the  beginning  he  overestimated  the  size  of  Asia.  He 
believed  that  the  opposite  sides  of  the  Eurasiatic  continent 
approached  each  other  with  a  water  area  of  a  greater  or  lesser 
extent  between  them.  Whether  this  attempt  to  harmonize 
Scripture  and  science  kept  him  in  ignorance  of  the  true  dimen- 
sions of  his  globe  until  the  day  of  his  death  is  a  matter  of 
conjecture. 


*Toscanelli's  figures  are  24,969  English  miles.     M.  Faye's  meas- 
urement in  1904  amounted  to  24,860  English  miles. 


The  Science  of  Columbus  463 

With  such  matter  as  would  appeal  to  the  minds  of  those 
who  demand  concrete  evidence,  and  with  such  figures  as 
would  arrest  the  attention  of  those  who  deal  with  unsolved 
mysteries  by  mathematics,  he  approached  his  Sovereigns  and 
their  councils  and  juntas,  unofficial  and  official  with  intense 
earnestness. 

Spain  was  at  war  with  the  Moors  throughout  all  this  time. 
The  Royal  Treasury  experienced  a  perennial  deficit  with  a 
stubborn  foe  contesting  every  inch  of  the  Spanish  advance. 
New  lands  had  no  charms  for  a  royal  pair  fighting  for  their 
own  fief.  Expensive  adventure  could  not  be  undertaken  when 
every  maravedi  was  needed  for  munitions  and  mercenaries. 
In  Columbus'  usual  passionate  manner  he  charges  that  he  was 
merely  laughed  at  for  seven  years.*  But  his  petition  was 
granted  within  ninety  days  after  the  surrender  of  Granada. 

It  is  evidence  pointing  to  the  sanity  and  charity  of  the 
Queen  that  the  monarchs  did  not  hold  him  in  La  Capitulation 
to  the  fabulous  acquisitions  he  so  often  pictured  in  his  argu- 
ments. Columbus  was  excitable  and  incoherent  in  many  of 
his  writings,  given  to  exaggeration,  but  he  lived  under  tre- 
mendous pressure  a  great  part  of  his  life  and  his  utterances 
must  be  judged  by  the  extremity  of  his  wishfulness  and 
earnestness. 

It  is  not  unfair  to  the  Discoverer  to  declare  that  his  inter- 
ests were  also  centered  in  the  profits  of  the  expedition,  but  his 
ultimate  aim  as  a  Crusader  gives  sufficient  cause  for  a  desire 
to  have  funds  to  prosecute  the  rescue  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre. 


*"Seven  years  did  I  remain  in  the  Court  of  Your  Majesties  when 
those  to  whom  I  spoke  of  this  enterprise  declared  with  one  voice  that 
it  was  chimerical  and  foolish."     Lettera  Rarissima. 


464  The  Science  of  Columbus 

The  crown  having  supplied  him  with  a  meagre  amount  for 
the  expedition  he  sailed  from  Palos,  August  3,  1492,  with  a 
fleet  of  three  vessels,  not  one  of  which  would  have  been  under- 
written by  any  modern  maritime  insurance  company. 

The  voyage  outward  was  peculiarly  propitious.  The  ap- 
pearance of  the  volcano  on  Teneriffe  at  the  beginning  of  the 
journey  and  the  passage  of  a  remarkable  meteor  alarmed  the 
crew  and  restlessness  was  noted  two  or  three  days  before  the 
landfall,  but  aside  from  these  slight  disturbances  the  journey 
was  serene  to  the  point  of  monotony.  That  Columbus  chose 
the  month  of  August  in  which  to  sail  points  to  an  assumption 
that  he  did  not  expect  to  cross  a  great  expanse  of  ocean  with 
equinoctial  storms  only  six  or  seven  weeks  away. 

When  he  sailed  from  Palos,  he  took  with  him  Toscanelli's 
map  which  provided  for  a  straightaway  sail  from  Lisbon,  but 
he  dropped  ten  degrees  southward  on  a  course  of  his  own. 
Every  map  that  Columbus  had  seen,  every  storm  tossed  mar- 
iner that  had  won  home  from  the  jaws  of  the  west  had  filled 
the  mid-Atlantic  with  islands  of  more  or  less  marvelous  char- 
acter. He  stubbornly  refused  to  search  for  these  imaginary 
groups  upon  encountering  vegetation  adrift  in  spite  of  the 
loud  and  boisterous  appeals  of  the  brothers  Pinzon,  pilots  of 
the  Pinta  and  the  Nina. 

When  he  refused  to  beat  about  in  search  of  these  islands  he 
was  acting  upon  his  own  knowledge  that  insular  masses  are 
the  final  utterance  of  the  continent.  He  was  sure  that  Cipango 
(Japan),  lying  east  of  Asia,  was  an  island.  With  the  exception 
of  keys  and  perhaps  a  string  of  archipelagoes,  Cipango  would 
be  the  first  dry  land  to  be  encountered  before  raising  the  Asi- 
atic mainland.  His  sail  had  been  all  too  short  to  reach  that, 
then. 


The  Science  of  Columbus  465 

Under  the  thirteenth  of  September  after  leaving  Palos  he 
entered  in  his  Journal  the  following: 

"On  this  day  at  the  beginning  of  night  the  needles  declined 
a  trifle  to  the  northwest  and  in  the  morning  they  declined  a 
trifle." 

Had  nothing  more  than  this  fact  come  of  the  expedition,  it 
would  have  been  more  than  worth  all  of  the  efforts  of  the 
Discoverer  to  make  the  voyage.  It  was  ocular  proof  that  the 
world  was  round.  It  was  well  known  that  the  needle  deflected 
east  of  north  in  European  waters.  Had  the  explorer  been  ex- 
pecting the  needle  to  deflect  west  of  north  as  soon  as  the  line 
of  no  variation  was  passed,  he  would  have  made  an  hourly 
examination  of  the  compass  when  the  declination  became  less 
apparent.  There  is  no  previous  evidence  in  any  of  his  writ- 
ings or  his  verbal  arguments  to  show  that  he  expected  this 
variation.  The  occurrence  promptly  explained  itself  to  him. 
It  was  no  surprise;  it  was  merely  unlooked-for  evidence  that 
proved  his  contention.  After  that  day  he  went  forward  with 
the  unalterable  determination  rising  upon  a  belief  confirmed. 
In  that  hour  he  assumed  his  place  as  the  greatest  scientist  of 
the  times.  What  occurred  afterwards  was  the  fortune  of  an 
explorer. 

On  the  night  of  October  11,  he  encountered  one  of  those 
spectacular  tempests  peculiar  to  the  region  of  the  Antilles. 
While  the  crews  were  still  wrestling  with  their  feeble  craft  in 
the  wallow  of  appalling  seas,  some  anxious  squaw  on  Watling's 
Island  showed  a  light  to  guide  her  fisherman  brave  into  port 
and  the  Admiral  of  the  Ocean-sea  and  Vice-Roy  of  all  the 
Indies  was  lighted  into  a  New  World  by  it. 

When  he  landed  on  the  following  morning,  he  was  so  sure 


466  The  Science  of  Columbus 

that  he  had  reached  one  of  the  outpost  insular  masses  of  Asia 
that  he  gave  the  aborigines  their  permanent  misnomer.* 

He  knew  that  he  had  discovered  another  race.  He  was 
sufficiently  acquainted  with  enough  representatives  of  man- 
kind to  separate  them  at  once  from  the  white,  the  Malay  and 
the  negro.  He  who  knew  all  the  kinds  of  man  that  can  accu- 
mulate at  a  port  was  aware  that  none  of  these  hawk-nosed 
horse-haired,  copper-skinned  folk  had  mingled  with  the  rest 
of  the  world  upon  any  man-built  quay.  So  he  called  them 
Indians  as  the  only  other  race  that  might  be. 

At  this  stage  of  the  Discoverer's  life  began  a  debate  with 
himself  that  he  probably  decided  before  he  was  done  voyaging 
over  the  waste  of  water  and  breaking  through  the  wilderness 
of  land  in  the  New  World.  It  is  mournfully  told  by  historians 
of  a  type  that  Columbus  died  without  knowing  that  he  had  not 
discovered  India.  A  little  closer  study  of  events  will  call  that 
statement  into  question. 

With  his  belief  in  a  round  world  confirmed,  with  the  islands 
of  the  ocean-sea  discovered  and  acquired  as  stipulated  in  his 
contract,  he  pressed  on  confident  that  his  road  to  India  was 
now  open.  The  next  day  he  proposed  to  set  sail  and  "go  and 
see  if  I  can  encounter  the  island  of  Cipango." 

The  Indians  told  him  of  Cuba  and  their  information  plus 
his  world-old  tradition  of  Cipango  led  him  a  twelve-weeks' 
search  through  the  Antilles.  By  the  first  of  November  he  be- 
gan to  waver.    He  was  at  that  time  in  Cuba.    Under  that  date 


*Under  October  15  of  his  Journal  he  makes  the  first  use  of  the 
word  " — and  I  afterwards  watched  the  shore  at  the  time  of  the  landing 
of  the  other  Indian  to  whom  I  had  given  the  aforesaid  things  and  from 
whom  T  did  not  t^ke  the  ball  of  cotton  although  he  wished  to  give  it  to 
me."    Las  Casas. 


The  Science  of  Columbus  467 

he  declared  he  is  upon  mainland  "within  a  hundred  leagues  of 
the  marvelous  cities  of  Quinsay  and  Zaiton."*  But  men  he 
had  sent  into  the  interior  to  inquire,  returned  two  days  later 
with  the  information  that  there  were  no  great  or  rich  cities 
and  he  set  sail  then  for  the  southeast  where  he  had  been  told 
lay  the  country  rich  in  gold,  gems  and  spices. 

J.  B.  Thatcher  in  his  work  on  Columbus  says:  "At  first, 
on  his  first  voyage  and  on  his  second  voyage,  he  doubtless  ex- 
pected to  find  if  not  the  Great  Khan  himself  at  least  the  outer 
door  of  his  dwelling  but  after  that,  we  believe  the  truth 
dawned  on  him,  a  suspicion  positively  confirmed  on  his  fourth 
voyage  when  on  the  coast  of  Veragua  he  was  told  that  across 
the  land  to  the  west  lay  another  body  of  water,  another  ocean 
and  that  the  western  coast  of  the  land,  the  continental  land 
bore  the  same  relation  to  the  eastern  coast  where  he  was  then 
as  Fuenterrabia  in  the  Atlantic  Ocean  bore  to  Tarragona  in 
the  Mediterranean  Sea." 

Much  that  is  contradictory  in  the  narrative  of  Columbus 
must  be  laid  to  his  situation,  the  times  and  his  temperament. 
His  Journal  was  written  expressly  for  the  eyes  of  the  Sov- 
ereigns. He  had  offered  India  and  its  wealth,  religious  field 
and  alliance  to  them  in  his  argument.  Its  discovery  was  to 
stand  as  his  proof  that  the  world  was  round.  It  was  the  most 
tempting  prize  of  the  expedition.  To  abandon  hope  of  it 
would  seriously  depreciate  his  gains. 

Is  it  not  possible  to  believe  that  he  continued  to  search  for 


*Journal. 


468  The  Science  of  Columbus 

India  long  after  he  was  sure  that  he  had  not  reached  it  ?  Time 
and  again  throughout  the  Journal  of  his  first  voyage*  he  of- 
fers much  forced  and  untenable  encouragement  to  the  Sov- 
ereigns. Often  he  quotes  absolute  dissipation  of  hope  by  in- 
serting information  given  him  by  natives.  Columbus  may  have 
been  a  stubborn  man,  preferring  to  believe  as  he  pleased,  but 
his  intelligence  was  vast.  It  would  be  a  slander  on  his  mental 
faculties  to  believe  that  a  navigator  of  his  experience  could 
coast  for  years  along  shores,  lifeless,  wild,  jungle-clad,  in  the 
expectation  of  momently  raising  a  civilization  as  old  as  Time, 
among  people  still  in  the  Stone  Age. 

Whether  or  not  he  began  at  this  time  to  feel  doubts  about 
his  India  he  directed  his  search  painstakingly  for  gold**  and 


*For  instance  after  dealing  strictly  with  childish  savages,  accept- 
ing shelter  in  straw  huts  and  presenting  garments  to  a  King  who  had 
never  seen  clothing  he  says  under  the  date  of  January  4,  1493,  that  "he 
concludes  that  Cipango  was  on  that  island."  He  refused  at  first  to 
believe  that  the  Caribs  were  cannibals  and  declared  that  they  were 
subjects  of  the  Great  Khan.  Before  he  left  the  Indies  he  surrendered 
the  idea.  He  found  evidence  to  confirm  his  beliei  and  rejected  all  of 
it  before  he  returned  to  Castile.  In  his  Folio  Letter  to  Luis  de  San- 
tangel  he  mentions  the  Grand  Khan  once,  but  the  vastness  of  the 
people's  simplicity  and  the  total  absence  of  any  civilization  in  many 
and  emphatic  words. 


*"Gold  was  collected  by  undermining  the  bank  of  a  stream.  At 
first  after  the  bank  falls,  the  water  bubbles  up  and  flows  away  in  a 
turbid  condition  but  soon  having  recovered  its  natural  clearness  the 
grains  of  gold  which  are  heavier  than  the  earth  in  which  they  are 
imbedded  and  settle  to  the  bottom,  are  clearly  displayed  to  view." 

Syllacio-Coma  Letter,  explaining  Indian  placer  mining. 


The  Science  of  Columbus  469 

spices  among  the  islands  that  he  had  found.  He  knew  that  he 
must  return  to  Spain  and  he  felt  that  a  mere  cluster  of  islands 
inhabited  by  savages  was  not  reward  enough  for  the  liberality 
of  the  Spanish  monarchs.  He  must  produce  revenue  enough 
to  justify  his  expedition.  The  opportunity  of  a  buccaneer 
never  occurred  to  him.  It  occurred  to  others.  In  his  letter  to 
the  nurse  of  Prince  Juan  he  denies  a  charge  made  against  him 
of  attempting  to  barter'  the  Indies.  He  might  easily  have 
larcenized  his  discovery  and  failing  to  return,  dropped  the 
curtain  on  the  New  World  and  the  round  world  until  some 
century  far  in  the  future. 

He  collected  mined  and  fashioned  gold.  He  knew  free 
gold  or  gold  in  the  nugget  but  there  is  doubt  whether  he  knew 
gold-bearing  quartz.  An  assayer,  sent  with  the  second  expe- 
dition, was  able  to  cast  doubts  upon  the  quality  of  nuggets 
found  by  Columbus  himself.  He  did  not  know  spices  in  the 
growing  state.  Under  the  date  October  23,  1492,  of  his  Jour- 
nal he  states :  "And  as  I  must  go  where  great  trade  may  be 
had,  I  say  that  it  is  not  reasonable  to  delay  but  to  pursue  my 
journey  and  discover  much  land  until  I  encounter  a  very  prof- 
itable country  although  my  understanding  is  that  this  one  is 
very  well  provided  with  spices ;  but  /  do  not  know  them,  which 
causes  me  the  greatest  trouble  in  the  world." 

Again  under  October  21,  he  expresses  his  alarm  at  his  igno- 
rance. Sunday,  December  30,  one  of  the  Pinzons  reported 
that  he  had  found  rhubarb,  which  the  Admiral  believed.  But 
his  description  of  the  plant  proved  that  he  was  in  error. 
Rhubarb  was  known  in  Europe  only  in  the  powdered  form, 
used  as  a  medicine.  He  knew  aloes  and  he  recognized  cinna- 
mon, but  he  confesses  that  he  knew  these  spices  only.  He 
carried  with  him  peppercorns  and  cinnamon  bark,  which  he 


470  The  Science  of  Columbus 

showed  to  the  Indians  when  in  search  of  spices.  It  was  only 
on  his  second  voyage  when  Dr.  Chanca,  the  queen's  physician, 
accompanied  him  that  he  was  able  to  identify  spices  as  they 
were  found. 

With  enough  samples  of  gold,  spices  and  Indians  to  prove 
that  he  had  raised  "a  very  profitable  country"  he  returned 
with  all  speed  to  Spain.  His  rise  to  greatness  was  instant. 
Few  successful  adventurers  have  been  as  warmly  applauded 
and  as  royally  rewarded  as  was  this  Italian  sailor,  returning 
with  a  new  world  for  his  sovereigns.  The  Grand  Khan  and 
the  gorgeous  cities  of  Zaiton  and  Quinsay  fell  into  insignifi- 
cance before  the  chance  of  conquest  and  adventure  in  the  esti- 
mation of  the  conquistadores.  His  second  expedition  had  im- 
mediately a  waiting  list,  not  of  broken  men  and  convicts  and 
ruffians,  but  gold-laced  and  belted  knights  and  lords  conscious 
of  their  social  superiority  to  the  Admiral  of  the  Ocean-sea. 

Columbus  at  the  pinnacle  of  his  greatness,  was  vested  with 
powers  that  were  to  undo  him.  It  is  safe  enough  to  clothe  a 
scientist  with  a  title  and  allow  him  an  income  but  to  rest  in 
him  the  duties  of  an  executive  may  place  him  without  his 
limitations.    It  was  so  in  the  case  of  Columbus. 

The  second  voyage  was  one  of  gold-seeking,  ruling  and 
construction  which  inspires  avarice,  envy  and  resistance.  He 
was  unfortunate  in  his  association  with  the  average  fifteenth 
century  man.  He  had  all  that  self-centered  tedium  of  manner, 
all  that  sensitiveness  and  solemnity  that  afflict  men  with  an 
urge ;  he  was  not  always  a  pleasant  companion  nor  always  an 
admirable  figure.  Temperamental,  almost  paranostel,  he  was 
nothing  different  from  any  man  ancient  or  modern  conse- 
crated to  a  single  purpose  and  knowing  himself  solely  selected 
therefor. 


The  Science  of  Columbus  471 

On  his  second  visit  to  the  Indies  he  built  the  city  of  Isabella 
on  the  island  of  Espafiola  or  Haiti.  With  a  mind  to  the  char- 
acter of  the  age,  he  selected  the  site  not  for  its  agricultural 
adaptability  or  for  maritime  trade  but  for  its  proximity  to  the 
gold  field.  It  was  low  and  marshy  and  its  soil  was  thin. 
Whether  he  failed  to  understand  these  faults  or  merely  ignored 
them  is  not  settled.  At  any  rate  as  a  city  builder  he  was  more 
energetic  than  wise  and  the  colony  suffered.  In  the  de  Torres 
Memorandum  he  urges  Antonio  de  Torres  to  make  it  plain  to 
the  Sovereigns  the  beauty  and  inviting  features  of  the  spot 
chosen,  which  would  imply  that  the  Admiral  wished  to  impress 
upon  them  that  he  had  been  deceived  by  appearances. 

The  construction  of  his  city  nearing  completion,  he  gath- 
ered a  troop  of  Spanish  soldiery  together  and  marched  into  the 
interior  of  Espafiola.  Finding  the  native  paths  too  narrow  for 
his  army,  the  purpose  of  which  was  to  impress  the  natives,  he 
set  his  arquebusiers  and  belted  knights,  indiscriminately  to 
work  clearing  roads.  This  was  just,  but  rash.  It  marked  the 
beginning  of  the  Admiral's  troubles. 

Upon  that  inland  journey  he  discovered  the  Royal  Plain  of 
Haiti,  whose  waters  flowed  over  sands  of  gold,  and  penetrated 
Cibao,  building  the  fortress  of  St.  Thomas  on  the  way.  Cibao 
was  and  is  still  a  gold  field  from  which  fabulous  treasure  has 
been  taken  and  in  which  fabulous  treasure  remains  to  this  day. 

When  he  returned  to  his  new  city  of  Isabella  he  found  the 
population  prostrate  with  malaria,  conditions  of  all  kinds 
bad,  and  the  public  assayer,  Fermin  Cedo,  declaring  that  the 
gold  he  had  analyzed  was  merely  melted  ornaments  and  al- 
loyed at  that.  Again  the  Admiral  impressed  the  leisure  class 
and  laborers  alike,  and  higher  the  flame  of  resentment  and 
dissatisfaction  grew. 


472  The  Science  of  Columbus 

A  third  incident  which  added  to  the  Admiral's  unpopu- 
larity occurred  later  while  he  was  coasting  down  the  long, 
long  edge  of  Cuba  on  a  voyage  of  exploration.  He  had  cov- 
ered more  than  a  thousand  miles  of  it  and  the  end  was  not  yet, 
when  he  tried  to  convince  himself  it  was  a  continent.  He  sent 
a  notary  among  the  crews  of  his  vessels  to  get  the  opinion  of 
the  men  and  the  notary  exceeding  his  authority  required  of  the 
seamen  an  oath  that  it  was  continental  land  threatening  a  pen- 
alty if  the  affidavit  were  afterward  repudiated.  Navarrete 
gives  the  written  report  of  the  notary  which  exonerates  the 
Admiral  of  any  part  in  this  high-handed  attempt  to  declare 
land  a  continent  by  oath. 

A  few  days  later  natives  affirmed  to  Columbus  that  the 
land  was  only  a  long  island  and  the  Discoverer  returned  to 
Isabella  still  defaulting  in  the  second  term  of  his  contract, 
mainland. 

He  was  not  discouraged.  Holding  fast  to  the  Apochry- 
phal  statement  of  the  proportion  of  land  and  water,  with  a  sea- 
area  already  great,  he  was  sure  he  must  find  the  continent 
soon.  In  his  affectionate  regard  for  the  Scriptures  he  ham- 
pered his  own  science.  Columbus  freed  from  the  claims  of 
Esdras  might  have  done  much  that  explorers  accomplished 
half  a  century  later. 

Opposition  to  him  developing  in  Castile  with  the  Sover- 
eigns more  or  less  impressed,  the  Admiral  hastened  back  to 
Spain.  He  readily  convinced  the  princes  of  the  value  of  his 
discoveries  and  he  was  despatched  a  third  time  for  the  Indies 
in  the  summer  of  1498  to  discover  and  explore. 

His  Journal  resumes  in  the  words  of  Las  Casas : 

"And  he  ordered  the  course  laid  to  the  way  of  the  south- 
west which  is  the  route  leading  from  these  islands  (Canaries) 


The  Science  of  Columbus  473 

to  the  south  in  the  name,  he  says,  of  the  Holy  and  Individual 
Trinity  because  then  he  would  be  on  a  parallel  with  the  lands 
of  the  sierra  of  Loa  (Sierra  Leone)  and  the  cape  of  Sancta 
Ana  in  Guinea  which  is  below  the  Equinoctial  Line  where,  he 
says,  that  below*  that  line  of  the  world  are  found  more  gold 
and  things  of  value ;  and  after  that  he  would  navigate,  the 
Lord  pleasing  to  the  west — " 

He  took  this  southerly  course  for  a  distinct  purpose  not 
named  in  this  paragraph  but  discussed  in  Spain  and  Portugal 
with  a  good  deal  of  interest.  There  was,  as  has  been  seen,  per- 
sistent reports  of  mainland  south  of  the  Antilles  where  much 
gold  would  be  found.  The  bull  by  Pope  Alexander  VI  issued 
shortly  after  Columbus'  return  in  1493,  had  laid  a  line  of  de- 
marcation in  the  New  World  dividing  Portuguese  possessions 
from  those  of  Spain.  It  was  to  quiet  the  opinion  of  the  King 
of  Portugal  that  continental  land  south  of  the  Indies  belonged 


*Columbus  owes  this  belief  to  Jaime  Ferrer,  jeweller  and  geog- 
rapher, very  distinguished  for  his  learning  in  his  times,  who  wrote  to 
the  Admiral  thus  : 

"And  for  this  reason  (the  Queen  having  commanded  him  to 
write  to  Columbus)  and  I  write  my  opinion  in  this  matter,  and  I  say 
that  within  the  equinoctial  regions  there  are  great  and  precious  things, 
such  as  fine  stones  and  gold  and  spices  and  drugs ;  ?nd  I  can  say 
these  things  in  regard  to  this  matter,  because  of  my  many  conversa- 
tions that  I  have  had  in  the  Levant,  in  Alcaire  and  Domas  and  because 
I  am  a  lapidary  and  because  in  those  places  it  always  pleased  me  to 
seek  to  learn  from  those  who  came  from  yonder,  from  what  clime 
or  province  they  bring  the  said  things  ;  and  the  most  I  could  learn 
from  many  Hindoos  and  Arabs  and  Ethiopians  is  that  the  greater 
part  of  valuable  things  comes  from  a  very  hot  region  where  the 
inhabitants  are  black  or  tawny  and  therefore  according  to  my  judg- 
ment when  your  Lordship  finds  such  people  an  abundance  of  said 
things  will  not  be  lacking;  although  of  all  this  matter  your  Lordship 
knows  more  when  sleeping  than  I  do  waking.  And  of  everything, 
by  means  of  the  Divine  aid,  your  Lordship  will  give  such  a  good 
accounting  that  by  it,  God  will  be  served  and  the  Sovereigns,  our 
Lords,  will  be  satisfied." 


474  The  Science  of  Columbus 

to  him  that  the  Discoverer  moved  south  in  midsummer  along 
a  line  near  the  Equator. 

Though  his  course  was  -definitely  outlined,  he  encountered 
such  stretches  of  intense  tropical  heat  that  he  altered  his  di- 
rection to  the  north,  but  before  he  had  sailed  far  in  that  di- 
rection, on  the  same  day,  July  14,  1498,  he  sighted  the  island 
of  Trinidad  and  possessed  it.  The  following  Wednesday  while 
replenishing  his  water  supply  upon  the  coast  westward,  he  saw 
a  low,  blue  misty  land  to  the  south.  He  named  it  "Ysla 
Sancta,"  a  diminutive  and  intramural  name  for  the  giant  land 
mass  of  South  America,  his  continent  at  last ' 

Five  days  later  a  deputized  number  from  his  flagship 
landed  and  took  possession  of  the  soil  of  the  mainland  as  an 
island.  But  his  contract  was  fulfilled,  though  he  was  never 
vouchsafed  absolute  confirmation  other  than  the  conviction  of 
his  own  great  mind. 

"Y  vuestras  Altezas  ganaron  estas  terras  tantas  qui  son 
otro  mundo,"  he  says  to  his  Sovereigns  in  his  narrative  of  the 
Third  Voyage. 

"And  your  Highness  will  gain  these  lands  which  are 
ANOTHER  WORLD !" 

In  the  same  narrative  also, 

"Y  estoy  creido  que  esta  es  tierra  firme,  grandissima,  de 
que  hasta  hoy  no  se  ha  sabido." 

"I  am  of  the  belief  that  this  is  continental  land  most  vast 
and  which  has  not  been  known  up  to  this  time." 

In  all  his  wanderings  for  six  years  over  land  and  sea  he 
had  never  encountered  a  metal  weapon,  a  house  of  masonry,* 


*On  his  fourth  voyage  he  saw  in  the  region  of  the  "Catiba  river" 

for  the  first  time  a  "solid  edifice"  made  of  stone  and  plaster  which 
the  Admiral  takes  to  be  a  relic  of  a  by-gone  age. 


The  Science  of  Columbus  475 

a  government  higher  than  the  tribe,  a  piece  of  money,  a  writ- 
ten word  or  a  clothed  human  being.  India  in  point  of  civiliza- 
tion was  rumored  to  be  far  superior  to  contemporaneous  Eng- 
land and  France;  its  refinement  was  said  to  be  felt  as  far  as 
its  name  was  known.  That  this  great  spread  of  island  and 
mainland,  Adam-innocent,  ignorant  of  all  but  the  simplest 
forms  of  tribal  government  should  be  adjacent  to  a  land  abrim 
with  ancient  and  all-pervading  civilization  was  not  possible. 
Truth  asserted  itself.  Whether  or  not  thereafter  he  continued 
to  serve  his  Sovereigns  with  a  hope  of  an  India  near-by,1  the 
intelligence  of  Christopher  Columbus  stood  up  sturdily  and 
spoke. 

Meanwhile  the  enemies  of  the  Admiral  had  been  active  in 
Castile,  and  Bobadilla,  a  vicious  and  arrogant  politician  was 
sent  by  the  Sovereigns  to  investigate  the  charges  of  ineffi- 
ciency brought  against  the  Admiral  because  of  conditions  in 
Espanola.  On  arrival  at  the  new  colony  Bobadilla  placed 
Columbus  under  arrest  and  returned  him  to  Spain  in  chains. 

Historians  place  the  responsibility  of  this  indignity  entirely 
upon  Bobadilla.  An  effort  was  made  by  the  friends  of  the 
Admiral  to  remove  the  irons  after  Columbus  had  been  placed 
upon  shipboard  but  he  refused  to  allow  it.  In  his  dramatic 
manner  he  insisted  on  wearing  them  as  a  reproach  to  his  ene- 
mies and  as  an  evidence  of  the  ingratitude  of  men  and  princes. 

When  he  obtained  a  hearing  from  his  Sovereigns  he  was 
again  restored  to  his  status  and  despatched  on  his  fourth  and 
last  voyage.    He  sailed  May  9,  1502. 

The  purpose  of  this  expedition  was  to  establish  Spain's 


1.  In  the  narrative  of  Diego  de  Porras  it  is  explicitly  charged 
that  Columbus  took  the  charts  of  the  region  from  the  sailors  who 
made  them.  It  is  evident  that  he  did  not  wish  the  Sovereigns  to 
arrive  at  conclusions  of  their  own  about  his  India. 


476  The  Science  of  Columbus 

right  to  South  America  and  to  settle  new  lands.  The  Admiral 
was  given  four  ships  and  dependable  crews  and  told  to  remain 
away  from  Espanola. 

Circumstances,  however,  brought  him  to  the  new  colony 
and  Bobadilla  would  not  permit  him  to  land.  Twenty-eight 
ships  under  Bobadilla  were  lying  in  the  roadstead  ready  to  de- 
part for  Castile  with  accumulated  treasure.  Signs  of  a  storm 
of  characteristic  West  Indian  severity  were  prevalent  and  Co- 
lumbus sent  a  messenger  warning  the  commander  of  the  fleet 
of  the  danger  and  urged  him  not  to  weigh  anchor.  His  advice 
was  not  heeded  and  his  prophecy  was  ridiculed.  Columbus 
sought  shelter  in  a  snug  harbor  and  made  all  things  safe.  The 
fleet  of  twenty-eight  treasure-laden  ships  with  Bobadilla  set 
sail.  In  a  few  hours  the  storm  developed  and  every  vessel 
with  every  soul  on  board  including  Bobadilla  was  lost.  Co- 
lumbus and  his  ships  escaped  without  harm. 

So  far  as  the  Discoverer  was  concerned  it  was  an  occur- 
rence not  without  a  fortunate  aspect.  Had  Bobadilla  reached 
Spain  he  would  have  reopened  the  prosecution  of  the  Admiral, 
and,  Isabella's  death  occurring  shortly,  the  Admiral  would 
have  had  no  friend  at  court. 

Upon  this  voyage,  Columbus  was  to  learn  that  truth  which 
was  to  unseat  the  final  deception  he  entertained  of  his  globe 
and  its  dimensions. 

He  was  once  more  upon  the  mainland,  this  time  upon  the 
Isthmus  of  Panama  among  Indians  at  the  mouth  of  the  Vera- 
gua  river.  He  was  told  that  he  was  within  nine  days'  journey 
by  land  to  another  sea  that  washed  the  western  slope  of  the 
land. 

Las  Casas  commenting  on  the  Admiral's  Journal  says : 

"Item :     The   sea    surrounds   Ciguare   which   ought   to  be 


The  Science  of  Columbus  477 

some  city  or  province  of  the  dominion  belonging  to  the  Grand 
Khan  and  ten  days'  journey  from  there  was  the  river  Ganges, 
and  as  one  of  the  provinces  which  the  Indians  indicated  as 
rich  in  gold  was  the  province  of  Veragua,  the  Admiral  be- 
lieved that  those  countries  were  situated  in  relation  to  Veragua 
as  Tortosa  is  to  Fuenterarabia  as  if  he  understood  that  one 
was  on  one  sea  and  the  other  on  another.  Thus  it  appears 
that  the  Admiral  imagined  that  there  was  another  sea  which 
we  now  call  the  South  Sea  and  in  this  he  was  not  deceived,  al- 
though he  was  in  all  other  things." 

The  Admiral's  own  words  are,  translated: 

"They  say,  moreover,  that  the  sea  boils*  in  the  said  prov- 
ince of  Ciguare  and  that  from  there  it  is  ten  days'  journey  to 
the  river  Ganges.  It  seems  that  these  lands  stand  in  relation- 
ship to  Beragua  as  Tortosa  stands  in  relationship  with  Fuen- 
terrabia  or  as  Pisa  with  Venice." 

The  reader  consulting  maps  of  Spain  and  northern  Italy 
and  of  Panama  will  be  struck  with  the  soundness  of  the  Ad- 
miral's comparisons. 

This  statement  of  the  Indians  quoted  and  illustrated  by  the 
Admiral  evidently  did  not  reach  cartographers  of  the  next 
score  of  years,  or  failed  to  impress  them  if  it  did.  Maps  until 
1520  allowed  only  for  a  strait  between  the  South  American 
land  body  and  the  Asiatic  continent.  The  probabilities  are 
that  they  were  convinced  by  the  Admiral's  own  statement  near 
the  middle  of  his  "Lettera  Rarissima"  in  which  he  reiterates 
his  belief  that  the  world  is  not  as  large  as  commonly  supposed. 
It  is  at  this  time  that  he  must  have  made  disposition  of  his 
problem.  He  has  the  proportions  given  him  by  Esdras  of  land 
and  sea ;  he  has  Sovereigns  to  satisfy  that  India  is  now  acces- 


*Foams. 


478  The  Science  of  Columbus 

sible  to  them;  these  upon  one  hand.  On  the  other  he  has  all 
that  he  has  seen,  all  that  he  has  reasoned,  all  that  he  surmises 
in  his  sagacious  and  discerning  mind  to  reconcile. 

He  must  have  known  positively  that  he  was  upon  conti- 
nental land,  not  Asia,  and  that  a  body  of  water  at  least  a  ten 
days'  sail  in  width  lay  between  him  and  Cathay.  In  the  light 
of  these  indisputable  facts  supported  by  the  Admiral's  own 
words,  it  seems  advisable  to  dismiss  as  false  the  ancient  tradi- 
tion that  Columbus  died  in  ignorance  of  his  discovery  and  be- 
lieving that  he  had  reached  India. 

Why  he  did  not  take  up  a  march  at  once  across  Panama 
to  the  opposite  side  is  easily  explained.  His  ships  were  crazy, 
his  food  exhausted  and  the  folk  he  encountered  on  the  main- 
land were  not  the  simple  savages  of  the  West  Indies.  There 
is  something  pathetic  in  his  sailing  away  from  that  mighty 
rumor  that  he  had  heard  to  take  up  the  roundabout  rambling 
over  the  sea.  Perhaps  what  was  left  to  him  of  life  was  more 
to  his  liking  than  an  end  on  the  limitless  breast  of  the  Pacific, 
or  an  open  admission  to  the  Sovereigns  that  he  had  found  yet 
between  his  New  World  and  India  thousands  of  leagues  of 
mighty  world-girth. 

Having  taken  possession  of  Ciguare  with  its  mines  of  gold, 
he  sailed  away  to  explore  the  north.  Storm  and  accident 
stranded  him  on  Jamaica.  He  sent  a  real  hero  by  the  name  of 
Diego  Mendez  across  a  hundred  miles  of  wilderness  and  furi- 
ous sea  to  Espafiola  for  ships.  The  man  made  the  trip  over- 
land and  by  canoe  and  discharged  his  mission  to  the  letter. 
The  Admiral  and  his  exhausted  crews  were  rescued  after 
months  of  waiting  by  a  ship  that  Mendez  had  bought  with 
Columbus'  money  and  by  one  sent  by  Ovando,  governor  of 
Espafiola. 


The  Science  of  Columbus  479 

It  was  while  waiting  on  rescue  that  he  called  into  use  his 
astronomical  knowledge  and  frightened  the  recalcitrant  na- 
tives into  providing  his  men  with  food,  by  predicting  an  eclipse 
of  the  moon. 

It  is  not  probable  that  the  Admiral  made  the  calculation 
himself.  The  chances  are  that  he  carried  with  him  one  of 
Johannes  Muller's  Calendarium,  a  book  issued  in  1474,  which 
calculated  eclipses  and  movements  of  the  heavenly  bodies 
years  in  advance.  In  his  "Book  of  Prophecies"  Columbus 
mentions  eclipses  twice,  adding  enough  personal  observations 
to  warrant  the  belief  that  he  knew  and  understood  astronomy. 

In  his  new  ships  he  returned  to  Espanola  where  he  was 
kindly  received,  but  his  wound  had  opened  afresh,*  gout  af- 
flicted him,  and  his  years  weighed  upon  him.  He  returned 
to  Spain  in  November  of  1504. 

He  had  fulfilled  the  terms  of  his  contract.  If  he  had  not 
opened  an  ocean  route  to  India  it  was  the  fault  of  the  config- 
uration of  the  globe  not  his  own.  He  had  delivered  a  new 
hemisphere,  the  richest  on  the  globe  to  Spain.  This  done,  the 
ungrateful  survivor  of  the  party  of  the  second  part,  Ferdinand, 
refused  to  live  up  to  his  terms. 

Christopher  Columbus,  one  of  the  greatest  scientists  of  all 
times,  part  owner  of  half  the  globe,  died  in  poverty  and  men- 
tal disquiet,  as  somehow  they  always  die  who  achieve  mightily 
for  mankind. 

When  he  left  Palos  in  August,  1492,  he  was  the  foremost 


*There  is  no  account  of  a  wound  in  all  the  history  of  the  Admiral 
but  when  the  casket  containing  his  ashes  was  opened  twenty-five  or 
thirty  years  ago  a  bullet  of  lead  weighing  an  ounce  was  found  in  his 
dust.  The  presumption  is  that  he  was  wounded  at  some  period  of 
his  life,  when  he  was  obscure  and  roving,  and  the  bullet  was  never 
removed. 


480  The  Science  of  Columbus 

thinker  of  the  day ;  when  he  landed  on  Watling's  Island  he 
was  a  bewildered,  ignorant  man  on  the  threshold  of  immense 
facts  old  and  new.  When  he  dragged  himself  from  the  ship 
he  had  bought  with  his  own  money,  in  the  harbor  of  San  Lu- 
car  de  Barrameda,  in  Spain,  he  was  again  the  foremost  thinker 
of  the  day,  for  he  had  learned  mightily,  more  than  he  chose  to 
tell  the  world  or  his  friend  among  the  Sovereigns  of  Spain. 
He  knew  his  people,  his  times  and  his  monarchs.  When  he 
uncovered  continental  land  unknown  to  that  hour,  he  recog- 
nized that  he  had  not  opened  a  way  for  trade  with  India,  nor 
revealed  the  whereabouts  of  the  gorgeous  cities  of  Quinsay 
and  Zaiton  to  the  avaricious  age.  Instead  he  had  given  it 
treasure  greater  than  the  fabulous  wealth  of  many  Indias  but 
a  virgin  wealth  that  had  to  be  gained  by  toil  and  pains.  This 
was  hardly  welcomed  by  that  people  accustomed  to  profit 
without  labor.  He  deemed  it  wise  to  keep  his  greatest  knowl- 
edge within  himself. 

He  lived  before  Tycho  Brahe,  before  Copernicus,  before 
Galileo  and  before  Newton.  Available  scientific  facts  to  guide 
him  were  fewer  than  those  in  the  knowledge  of  the  school-boy 
to-day.  But  he  had  a  vision  that  could  penetrate  the  dark 
without  help.  His  was  a  twilight  age  and  in  spite  of  intimida- 
tion, in  spite  of  injustice  and  vast  difficulty,  he  lessened  the 
obscurity  so  that  all  men  might  see. 


Note — Acknowledgment     is      made     to     Tohn     Boyd     Thatcher' 
''Christopher  Columbus"  for  translations  in  this  article. 


